


How Things Work Out

by LatteWolf



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Fix-It, M/M, Post-Canon Fix-It, Time Travel, Tony Stark Lives
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-30
Updated: 2019-04-30
Packaged: 2020-02-09 16:24:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18641749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LatteWolf/pseuds/LatteWolf
Summary: Summary in notes. Looking out for you poor folks who haven't seen it yet.





	How Things Work Out

**Author's Note:**

> Basically: The huge battle at the end of Endgame but Steve's older self decides to intervene during the battle. Steve's older self realizes he can take the force of the snap etc. etc.  
> Shat this mess out late after watching Endgame in a fit of depressed-rage. Might add more to this at some point. First fic posted on here because there's nowhere near as much endgame Stony to help the poor devasted Marvel fans and I've been waiting for a good opportunity to post one of my many literary failures.  
> *Changed title. I'm bad at those, sorry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cap's older self realizes he made the wrong decision and tries to make things right, talk some sense into his younger self, take the force of the snap, prevent Tony's death, and give the Steve Rogers a shot at a life he gave up.  
> My only beta is my poor, abused Grammarly.  
> Might add more at some point idfk

It’s truly epic, this moment. It’s not one of those things you’ll ever forget in your lifetime. Definitely not for Steve, at least.

Every powerful, remarkable, kind hero he’s ever known or heard about is here- kicking an ungodly amount of ass. He feels proud, almost. Like any father watching their kids tear a tyrannical, purple alien a new one. When he got to call out the most significant “Avengers assemble!” of his life, Steve thinks to himself: this must be what destiny is. This moment- this battle is almost familiar. The good guys always win.

Well, it seemed so until big purple got his hands on the one thing he’s not really supposed to have his hands on. Thanos manages, several times, actually, to grab the gauntlet. So far, someone’s been able to snatch it out of his hands every time, but Steve is practically chewing his nails off hoping it keeps up. He has a mini heart attack every time Thanos so much as grazes his fingertips against it. They can’t lose. He can’t lose. Not again.

Things slow. His army is overpowering. Their edge is starting to give out. He sees a knowing look in just about every hero’s eye that knows that there’s too many of them. It seems like everyone takes a deep breath all at once and looks into the stones. Steve tears his eyes away, focusing on his battle, on what he’s doing. Then a deep, rumbling scream booms across the battlefield. The alien troops in front of him go still. Silent.

Thanos is wearing it.

He looks back to Stark, on the brink of collapsing under the weight of all of this, but something’s wrong. Stark is looking elsewhere. At Strange.

And then he lunges at Thanos, determined like he didn’t use to be.

And then time stops.

Quite literally.

Steve thinks he might be going loony for a split second when everything freezes around him. His heart is beating out of his chest. Then he notices someone’s standing there, right between Thanos and Stark, that wasn’t before. And this guy looks entirely out of place. He’s old, like __old__ old. He seems so normal that Steve wonders how nobody batted an eye when he sauntered over and snapped his fingers, time stone in hand.

He turns around and looks at Steve knowingly, everything paused around them.

“Hello. You’re probably wondering what’s going on, Steve. We need to talk.”

It’s him. He has to be around 90, but that’s definitely himself. Why is he here?

“You’re me,” Steve blabbers out, dumbfounded.

“Yes. I am. Come sit down.”

Old Steve Rogers crouches slowly onto the charred Earth below, patting his hand next to him to invite him over. Steve approaches with caution, looking at the scene stopped in mid-air all around with bewilderment. He falls onto the rock underneath him, eyes darting around, full and scared.

“Tony has made a decision right now. You’re not going to like it very much.”

Steve looks to Stark, eyes softening. He looks so tired.

“He knows it’s the only way to win, doesn’t he? Even if it kills him?”

“Indeed.”

“If you could rewind- just-just a little, I could-”

“That’s not why I’m here son.”

Older Mr. Rogers threads his hands together and hums.

“You’re making a decision too.”

Steve looks at him, stops himself before he can ask ‘How do you know that?’ and realizes why he’s here, who this is.

“I- I went through with it? Staying back then?,” Steve asks his older self.

“You did.”

Steve doesn’t know what to feel. Warmth rushes everywhere, thinking that he can do what he’s wanted to do for the past decade. Since he woke up.

“I’m here to tell you not to.”

What?

“Wait; what?”

“I’ve been alive a long, long time, Steve. That time has granted me wisdom. I know some things now that you don’t. That I wish I knew. I know that trying to go back to the past isn’t easy. That learning to let go is hard. And letting go is something that’s even harder to unlearn.”

“Mr. Rogers- me- sir- I’ve wanted this for so long and I just- I don’t think I can give that opportunity up,” Steve almost cries.

“And I’m here telling you that you have to.”

Old Mr. Rogers puts his hand gently on his shoulder and smiles fondly.

“You think that leaving the past behind you is the worst thing that will ever happen. That living with the present makes you want to just go back. But that is something different that you can’t understand why you don’t want without living the life I did.”

“Did you… regret it?”  


“No, I had a good life. Peggy made me so happy in that time. But that’s not your time anymore, son. There are some things I never stopped lying awake at night thinking about, and some people, too.”

Mr. Rogers looks at Stark and sighs a bit.

“We never stopped thinking about him, did we?” Steve asks.

“Oh, it was hard to adjust to something you already said goodbye to. When we say goodbye there’s always something else going forward. It was a lot of things, but mostly, there was him.”

“But- his family? Everything he has that’s… not me?”

“I looked at so many possibilities before I came here. And you want to know how many of them Tony lives and still isn’t happy?”

Steve chuckles, “Ah, that asshole. Probably none. He’s never satisfied with anything.”

Mr. Roger looks at him thoughtfully.

“He is with you.”

Steve frowns.

“She leaves him, eventually. She takes Morgan. Stark isn’t the kind of man that can come back from the chaos and go on as nothing happened. He’s already failed, and he’ll keep doing so again and again. I had a hunch so when it was the time, I stopped myself giving the time stone back, right in New York. That Steve Rogers trusted me, told me to make things right. When I looked through time I knew.”

“What happens? With Stark?”

“He isn’t a whole man. He makes a choice, and that choice falls like a domino. He isn’t there when people need him. Some nasty things happen, kid. With the team, with everyone. And it was like this every time he was there, and you weren’t.”

Steve furrows his brows. That can’t be right.

“No, Tony wouldn’t- He wouldn’t take his own-”

“He does. Time and time again. People were relying on him, and he couldn’t do it. Couldn’t keep pushing on. People are relying on you here, Steve. Don’t let them down. Don’t shy away from what you know you want, what you know you can have. Don’t give it all up for a life you know deep down isn’t yours anymore.”

“But, what about Peggy? About everyone back home?”

Old Mr. Rogers pats him on the back and opens his palm, the time stone casting a soft green glow on his face.

“It’s all okay, son. Peggy gets her dance.”

And then it’s all a blur, Tony falls flat onto the ground, Thanos is looking at his hand, his eyes flashing with defeat when he sees it’s empty, then as all heads turn towards an old Steve Rogers snapping and collapsing on the ground, instantly dead.

“What the fuck just happened? Cap? What- what’s going on?”

Thanos is on his knees, Tony has a wild, confused look on his face, and all the alien troops around them are breaking down and being swept away by the wind. They’ve just won.

“Uh, Cap, you wanna tell me what the hell you were doing as an old man a good five seconds ago?”

Steve doesn’t even acknowledge his question, just stares at Tony welling up with tears. He smiles and hugs him like he’s trying to choke him to death as Tony stares at nothing with complete confusion.

“We won.”


End file.
